Ball'n

The second half of your post is talking about going C2, which has nothing to do with 4-3 or 3-4 whatsoever. Also, C1 or C2, Byrd, being the FS, is going to be the deep help almost every play anyway. The only difference is if he's defending the middle or a half.

Exactly. People want to cut players because they are injury prone or just average players all the time, but the thing we need on this team above all else is talent and depth. By cutting our "average" players we are essentially making our below-average backups into starters and making our backups completely unknown prospects who rarely ever pan out for us, deflating our talent level and depth even more.

Well he is injury prone at this point, but that is no reason not to sign him on the cheap and get him back in camp next year. He is a weapon in this offense when healthy, and that alone is worth giving him a shot. Whose roster spot does he take up...one of the scrub WR's who shouldn't even be on a 53 man NFL roster, yup, big loss there :x

pick is in

Dowling is more of a zone defender, I doubt it.

YES. I've wanted him since he was only #5 on most boards, was always the best player in the draft imo.

They both have issues. If I had to pick one I would go with Cam. Gabbert is a more polished player, like you have said. However, he gets skiddish and seems to really feel the pressure as it closes in on him, and not in a good way. Nix stated that the biggest thing he looks at with a QB is if they can hit the tight window while being pressured, and from watching 3 of his games I personally think that he will not be a great QB because he gets nervous when pressured. I see some issues with Newton as well, mainly mechanics. He has a good throwing motion, but seemingly half his throws he isn't set for, he has terrible footwork, and he seems to use his talent to bail him out of using proper form since it works for him most of the time. The reason I would be okay with drafting him is because he would be ideally sat for at least a season, in which he could hopefully learn to plant for every throw, and learn to be consistent enough with the form that his talent will allow him to hit all the windows with a much lesser risk of a ball sailing or dipping on him. His freelance type play can be considered an asset when on the run however, so I am more talking about while he is in the pocket than out of it. I did notice he will rush a throw at times in order to avoid being hit, but that can be changed. It is not an issue of getting Skiddish like Gabbert. As for making reads and such, I'll leave that to Gailey to decide this Monday. If Cam is on the board for pick #3, I have a feeling the meeting on this Monday will go a long way in if he is picked or not.

It is just a visit. They have lots of people who will come in for visits and I for one am glad that they are looking into every option to determine who is the best pick for them at #3. Stop reading into it so much.

I understand that, but it was fairly clear that keeping the ball in Newton's hands, especially as a runner, was not as good of a strategy as handing the ball off to running backs once he got hurt. The coach is going to do whatever to win, and I agree that he likely thought keeping the ball in his hands was what he thought was best, but it wasn't.

When he lowered his shoulder on a first down run he hurt his back and you could tell it affected him the rest of the game. He didn't run as hard, showed body language that it was hurting, and on one play he went down early on a designed run because he did not want to be hit. I don't think his coach even realized because he kept calling his number even though he wasn't fit to go, be it physically or mentally because of the pain, and it almost ended up costing them the game when Matthews forced the fumble on Newton. I don't know how bad it really was but I am certain he was in pain.

1st good game of the season for him. I understand your upset that he is playing well tonight but if you look at it from a whole and unemotional position the trade still doesn't look that bad.

There run blocking O-line is worse.

You mean #4, we have never picked from the 3rd spot until now.

Same. He will have trouble containing if forced to as a 3-4 DE though imo but once we get some OLB's that won't really matter. He is really impressing me so far. Once he is out of the play he doesn't really pursuit at all, and on the fumble 10 minutes ago you could see that he didn't really hustle to try to get the ball. Not big issues but worth noting.

I saw some good things, some bad. USF played with an offensive gameplan that was intended to neutralize Clemson's D-line, and it worked for the most part. Screens, quick reads, etc. all made Bowers fairly ineffective in this game but it was not so much a showing of him not being the player he is rated to be. I'll need to watch more tape on him and on some of the other top D-line prospects(not impressed at all with Clayborne though- not the player he was last season imo) but I would still be okay with us taking him at the moment.

I agree, but I think he is referring to how Nix stated that he does not like to move around during a draft and how it is rare for him to do so. He said this before the draft, to the media.

I agree, but he gets more skiddish than I care for. He absolutely folds under pressure as he doesn't stand strong when the pressure is coming at him and based on how he even flinches away from contact while releasing the ball I don't see that changing. I'll pass. Talent is there but I think he will bust behind our line.

We play the Patriots twice, so I am pretty sure it does.

The play calling in the second half and OT was good, except for when we got within 5 yards of field goal range. If Chan had ran on 1st and 2nd down on the first and/or last series when we were near/just in field goal range we would have had at the bare minimum a tie and likely a win. Chan, Fitz, and Lindell all choked when inside the Chiefs 45.

They ran this set up last game...it was new then, not now. It also did not work because we could not set the edge, and Jax ran sweeps and reverses around our ends all day. Although, up the gut we did do better.

I'm going to go ahead and say I agree, and that Gailey should not be criticized for this move. I am going to wait until the bye week before making any judgments as I hope the offense gameplans will look better by that time, given we have a QB in that will actually take shots. I know he is not accurate, but we should be able to see more of what is planned with him at QB.

They circled 3 of the 4, but you are correct, the 4th WR was absolutely open on multiple occasions. Not circling made him look like a defender and made another WR look like he was covered when he was also open enough to be thrown to.

I agree, it looked exactly like last years team. This is by far the most depressing thing that could have happened, imo.

We looked exactly like last years team in this game. Offense was awful, defense was solid but had trouble getting off the field.

Wang made the 53 man roster, actually.